I recently got a free month of Kindle Unlimited and knew I had to read this short story series. I saw so much hype for The Six Deaths of the Saint and then saw the other line up. So this is a review round up for The Six Deaths of the Saint, What the Dead Know, Undercover, and Out of the Mirror, Darkness. By the way, for each of these I listened to the audiobook because what’s better than an audiobook?
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The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow
Always mindful of the debt she owes, the girl finds her worth as a weapon in the hand of the Prince. Her victories make him a king, then an emperor. The bards sing her name and her enemies fear it. But the war never ends and the cost keeps rising—how many times will she repeat her own story?
Having heard so much hype, I’m not going to lie most of it is warranted. In general, I just wanted a few more pages at the end to solidify the impact. But this one felt like a great balance of theme, character, and premise. I love the premise of a repeating story – especially as it continues to evolve in the story. The major theme is the winning point for me. How it talks about being so finely honed into a weapon – for someone else. To think what we have is love, to think what we are doing is a choice for sacrifice, when really we are falsely lured into a sense of worth and love. And Saskia Maarleveld does a great job at executing the twists and this fall from grace.
Find The Six Deaths of the Saint on Goodreads, Storygraph, and Amazon.
What the Dead Know by Nghi Vo
The Fogg River Seminary, a girls’ school in a small Illinois town, is supposed to be just another stop on Maryse and Vasyl’s endless travels. They’ve made lucrative use of Maryse’s “foreign” looks in their melodramatic séance act—and an act is all it is. Then, during their performance, a blizzard sweeps in and cuts them off from town completely. In the freezing halls, there’s a voice speaking the secrets of the dead, and Maryse has no choice but to listen…because this time, the voice is real.
From the beginning I loved the supernatural vibes. When I heard Natalie Naudus’ narration I was hooked. While the supernatural was the most subtle of what I’ve read from the series, it uses the supernatural to explore justice. To explore the stories and voices they would rather we forget. All the justice that is denied and taken. What the Dead Know highlights the responsibility of what it means to speak for the dead. I wish this had a bit more character development, but all in all solidly good.
Find What the Dead Know on Goodreads, Storygraph, & Amazon.
Undercover by Tamsyn Muir
A fresh-faced newcomer arrives in an isolated, gang-run town and soon finds herself taking a job nobody else wants: bodyguard to a ghoul. Not just your average mindless, half-rotted shuffler, though. Lucille is a dancer who can still put on her own lipstick and whose shows are half burlesque, half gladiator match. But the stranger is no stranger to this particular ghoul. Both women are undercover in their own way. And both have something to lose if their connection comes to light.
So far, Undercover is the most ambitious of the short stories I’ve read. Not only did I like the idea of supernatural undercover, but I enjoyed this ghoul figure which felt a bit like sentient zombies. As someone who enjoys zombie movies, Undercover has an intriguing twist on the zombie capabilities. But as Undercover continues, we get a better sense of Lucille and her past. I can appreciate the ambition and the twist at the end – gasped aloud. Susan Dalian does a great job narrating that scene specifically. While there were some parts that could have used a bit more due to the nature of the ambition of the story, this one has to be my favorite.
Find Undercover on Goodreads, Storygraph, and Amazon.
Out of the Mirror, Darkness by Garth Nix
It’s business as usual on the set of another cheap sword-and-sandal production by Pharos Pictures—until the lead actress suddenly falls into a deep, mysterious sleep. Jordan Harper can talk down high-strung starlets and knock sense into stuntmen, but this…this is the kind of uncanny problem that he’d usually bring to Mrs. Hope. Unfortunately, the preternaturally capable secretary is on a business trip with the studio head. Harper must get to the bottom of the mystery on his own before another cast member succumbs—or worse, they blow the budget.
In Out of the Mirror, Darkness I knew I had to read it. I’ve loved Garth Nix’s works since a teenager, but unfortunately this one felt a bit underdeveloped. I enjoyed the monsters meet historical fiction setting and the cinemas. However, this one just made me wish I had more time to get to know the world, characters, and magic. I felt taken aback when it finished and was thinking, did my audiobook cut off half the story? Unfortunately this was the weakest of what I’ve read.
Find Out of the Mirror, Darkness on Goodreads, Storygraph & Amazon.